Using Facebook as Part of Due Diligence in Tenant Screening

Class Inc. is a nationally recognized company specializing in vacancy solutions. We can help you reduce vacancy rates, increase tenant retention rates and train your staff for smooth running management of your property(ies).

One topic that has been coming up with increasing frequency is the role of social media in property management and apartment staffing. We are going to discuss a just a few points this week and will continue this topic in the future.

Facebook Research

Doing your due diligence in researching potential tenants seems to have gotten a lot easier with the advent of social media.

You can easily look someone up on Facebook and, if their profile is open to the public, have a look into their private life.

You can see their general lifestyle and assess their values via their posts. You can see their pets, their children, their friends, and their habits.

All this information can be used to form an idea if this person would be a good tenant or not. For example, if they are posting things about how their dog is so destructive, you may want to rethink renting them a newly refurbished unit with no pet deposit.

But Is it Ethical?

Looking at their profiles may be ethical these days since noone who has a public Facebook profile can reasonably claim total privacy.

If information you see tells you about their identity as part of a protected group (minority, handicapped, etc.) and you use this information to reject their application, you could be opening yourself up to a discrimination charge.The conclusion is that it is not so much the information you glean but how you use it.

We will continue this fascinating topic in future blogs. For a free consultation from Class Inc., call 855.863.0336